ISLAMABAD — Pakistan named a new head of intelligence on Friday, propelling a former deputy spy chief to the head of an agency crucial to American hopes of negotiating a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban and keeping the pressure on al-Qaida.

Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam replaces Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, who had been in the post since 2008 and was due to retire on March 18th. The scion of a military family who is currently army commander in the city of Karachi, Islam was considered a likely man for the job.

As head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, he will be a major player in any Pakistani efforts to get the Afghan Taliban to enter peace negotiations to the end the war. ISI agents helped build up the Afghan Taliban in the 1990s, and its leaders are based in Pakistan. The ISI is believed to have some influence over them.

The ISI also works closely with the CIA in tracking and capturing members of al-Qaida, which retain a global command and training center close to the Afghan border. Many of the terrorist plots targeting the West over the last 10 years have originated from the region.Islam is not expected to immediately, or significantly, change Pakistani policy in those areas.

The ISI falls under the control of the army, which sets policy in consultation with the elected government.

"I don't think we will see very much of a change in direction," said retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood. "He will bring stability, and also some fresh thinking."

Islam served as deputy ISI director from 2008 to 2010, and also headed the ISI's internal security wing, one of the most important positions in the agency.

The ISI has helped kill or capture several top al-Qaida leaders since 2001, but there are lingering doubts about its loyalty. The CIA cooperates closely with the ISI, but ties have been strained since the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year.Recently, Pakistani and U.S. officials said that the two agencies relations were improving, even as other areas of the partnership between Islamabad and Washington suffered.

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ISLAMABAD: Lieutenant General Zaheer-ul Islam, Commander 5-Corps (Karachi), has been appointed the new Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to succeed Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who will retire on March 18.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Friday appointed Lt. General Zaheer-ul Islam as the new DG ISI. Gen Islam has already served the organisation, thus bringing with him rich experience in the fields of internal security and intelligence.

The new DG ISI hails from Kahuta (Murree) where he served as GOC during the Musharraf era. Following weeks of consultations at the highest civil and military levels, two important decisions were taken in a meeting of the president, the prime minister and the army chief last week: no more extensions as DG ISI for Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who has already availed it twice; and the appointment of a new DG ISI.

Gen Zaheer is known in military circles as an honest, hardworking and upright person. “It is the right choice at the right time,” a retired 3-star general said.

ìHis appointment marks a clear shift in the thinking of the military and civilian leadership in the sense that he has no connections, whatsoever, with the Americans unlike Pasha who had a large circle of American friends and those regarded as Americanised. Zaheer has a crystal-clear career with no American connections or background,” said one of Gen Islam’s friends.

Gen Zaheer-ul Islam’s appointment is critical from three aspects: the expected thaw in Pak-US relations and the Afghan situation; Pakistan entering into election year with a lot of polarisation; and deep-seated tension between the civil and military leadership.

In Lt Gen Zaheer’s appointment as DG ISI, Army chief General Kayani got his trusted person to head the elite intelligence organisation, though Lt Gen Pasha too enjoyed his full confidence and often used to talk to the Americans on behalf of the army chief, and served as a kind of interlocutor during a period of tense military-to-military relations between Pakistan and the United States.

Highly placed circles say that Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani had sent a list of 3-star generals to the government with the request to appoint one of them as DG ISI. The list included the names of Lt Gen Zaheer-ul Islam, commander 5-corps - Karachi, Lt Gen Rashid, commander 4-corps - Lahore and Lt Gen Raheel Sharif, commander 30 corps - Gujranwala.

Circles privy to the development said that defence secretary Nargis Sethi asked for a full list of all 3-star generals so that the prime minister could have an overview of the careers of all such officers before picking up one for the slot.

“It was this development that resulted in a meeting between the president, the prime minister and the army chief where the latter requested the government to pick one from the list he has sent to the defence ministry,” said the circles. In this regard the statement recently made by defence minister Ch Ahmed Mukhtar is being quoted as proof. Mukhtar had told the press that the prime minister has the right to choose the new DG ISI.

Zaheer-ul Islam’s father retired as a colonel and his brothers - Azhar-ul Islam, Fakhar-ul Islam and Mazhar-ul Islam ñ also retired as military officers, as did his brother-in-law.

Surprisingly, Lt Gen Islam, who is coming from Karachi, will head the team of two other major generals in the ISI who also came to the ISI directly after serving in Karachi - Maj Gen Asfandyar Patudi (former GOC in Karachi) and Maj Gen Arif Warriach (former sector commander ISI in Karachi as Brigadier).